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Sunday, 21 October 2018

REVIEW: The Cry finale stuns and satisfies.

The two extremes of Joanna and Alistair are magnified more than ever for the finale, with their coldness at opposite ends of the spectrum. He cheers with euphoria as the case is scaled down while Jo feels nothing. He wants another baby, a book deal and the hypocrisy of working at a charity for abused children. There's also possibly the most unromantic marriage proposal ever to grace our screens. Joanna, however gradually knows she can't move forward with Alistair and that means escaping his control. Her future lies away from manipulation.

Joanna isn't free from dishing out the mind games herself and she starts by seducing him with the promise of being the perfect wife as long as he takes her to where Noah is buried. As she starts taking control, Alistair shows a sign of weakness as he all but to confesses to his mother who, judging by all her concerned facial expressions, knows the truth.

The revelation finally comes to Jo via a letter from an old lady that places Noah as being alive after they landed at Melbourne airport. Through Jo's imagination, the writer even gives a knowing look as she seals the envelope and it is a chilling moment despite being a tad predictable. It's in keeping with all the twists, they have never been a surprise but the tension is expertly done. The drama is in the emotion.

A showdown on the Moors ensues where she forces him into confessing his sons and forces him off the road in the process. Joanna stands in court, seemingly about to confess the entire truth, only to actually take on Alistair's bad habits by delivering a speech (un) worthy of the man himself. For all her frailty we've seen over the four hours there's also been an arrogance post the murder. This speech had it in abundance. She believed she'd get away with it and she did.

There were lots of lovely little details to admire in the finale. Like when they're viewing a home and Jo asks "where is he?" about Noah and as if it was just casual conversation Alistair says "Here, let me take a photo". And in the way, once free she bought the house and lay above the burial spot in the exact same way as when she thought he was at the tree. We also get an explanation of the title sequence as the car flies off the road.

It's touches like this that justified all the leaps in time that The Cry has been criticised for. It made every scene, every big bit of dialogue ambiguous and suspicious. It made us the viewers analyse more because we got glimpses of the future. If it had been delivered in a linear way the show wouldn't have been as compelling. The concept making it bigger than the sum of its parts. The Cry was occasionally frustrating, sometimes stunning, with two showpiece performances from Jenna Coleman and Ewen Leslie.Contributed by Michael Lee